Charter school forum draws large crowd in Phelps

Wednesday

Mar 26, 2014 at 12:09 PM

By Megan Brandow mbrandow@messengerpostmedia.com

PHELPS — The Finger Lakes Classical Charter School is still an idea at this point, but that idea brought more than 100 parents, teachers, school administrators and students to the Phelps Community Center Tuesday to learn more about the possibility of a new area school.Some attendees were naysayers, worried taxpayers or public school educators who detest the very idea of a charter school. Others were concerned parents, homeschooling moms or young children who are thrilled about the school’s possibilities.Canandaigua resident Donna Bennett — a mother of three, former teacher and entrepreneur — is the driving force behind Finger Lakes Classical Charter School. She and a small team of supporters are leading the charge to make the school a realityCharter schools are tuition-free public schools that operate independently and rely on per-student state aid, the same aid public schools receive. The school would be the first of its kind in the area, located in Phelps, as charter schools typically operate in inner cities.Bennett plans to locate the school within the Phelps Community Center. The campus would be centrally located to bus kids from the nine area districts within a 15-mile radius, plus any outliers who are willing to transport their children themselves.The central location as well as the socioeconomic status of some surrounding areas make Phelps a desirable location for the state to approve the charter, she said.While the rural towns and small cities of the Western Finger Lakes are a far cry from the City of Rochester, Bennett said she sees a need for a charter school in the Finger Lakes due to concerns from parents, like herself, who are frustrated with certain aspects of public education.“We have our own jobs and our own lives, and we want to leave schooling to the school, and I was one of those parents,” Bennett said. “But when I started to notice more and more reason to get more involved and to make a difference and to change how things were going, I just couldn’t sit back and relax anymore. I wanted to be part of the show, so to speak.”Bennett said she developed concerns about some of the curricula her kids were bringing home, and after taking some of those concerns to her district’s Board of Education and getting nowhere, she made the decision to start a charter school.Many parents with similar attitudes were in attendance Tuesday — some who send their kids to private school, some who homeschool and some who are considering pulling their kids out of public school.There were also teachers there, some who were curious about possibly working at the charter school, others who were advocating for public school education.A number of school administrators from neighboring school districts also were in attendance, including Midlakes Superintendent Mike Ford. Ford was among public school employees and community members who voiced concerns Tuesday about the charter school taking students from already small and cash-strapped districts, costing them their per-student state aid when students enrolled in the new school.“If a large sum of money leaves any one of our school districts, and the local taxpayers want to maintain those services that otherwise might get cut, the district might put forth a tax levy above the tax cap amount,” Ford said.“There is no question this has a financial impact for schools. You just can’t say it won’t, it will,” Ford added. “Now the question is, can we find ways to mitigate it going forward?”Jim Cheney, the mayor of Phelps and a key player in the creation of the charter school, said at this point they cannot guess what the tax impact will be. Organizers are certain there will be no direct funding from taxpayers to the charter school, but the impact of the loss of state aid to public schools cannot be estimated.Perhaps the most vocal of all attendees was Tom Ledbetter, who sits on the Newark Central School District Board of Education. He said he loves the idea of charter schools, but doesn’t see what they are offering as different enough from public schools.Bennett recently completed the charter application through the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees. In New York state, charters can be acquired through either the New York State Education Department or SUNY. The charters are typically given in terms of five years, requiring the school to apply for a charter renewal each time.Bennett said they will hear back from the state in June, and if it’s approved the school will open in fall 2015.Part of the application process is submitting a petition, which was passed around Tuesday, signed by parents who are interested in enrolling their children in the school to prove to the state that there’s a desire for it.Bennett has estimated that the school, at first serving only grades kindergarten through sixth, will have about 200 students in its first year. There would be two kindergarten classes with 25 students each, and one 25-student class each for grades first through sixth in the first year. Then, the plan is to add on additional classes each year and eventually have grades seven through 12 too.Hillsdale College in Michigan, which operates a program called The Barney Charter School Initiative, is helping Bennett along the way and provides curriculum for the school. The program has successfully created four charter schools in Texas, New Mexico, Georgia and Arkansas. Five more schools are slated to open through this program in 2014.Some parents wanted specific examples of the curriculum designed by Hillsdale College, which Bennett said she would provide for those interested. The main difference is a focus on “classical” curriculum, providing students with great breadth of knowledge as opposed to depth of knowledge. There is also a focus on patriotism and the morals exemplified in the nation’s founding fathers, Bennett said.“The reason this came to be is because there’s a need for a different choice,” Bennett said. “ If there wasn’t a need, I wouldn’t be here.”

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